March 18/00 6:32 am - Sea Otter MTB Stage 2 Report

Posted by Editor on 03/18/00

Sea Otter - MTB Day 2

Chris Redden just telephoned in a report on the second stage of the mountain bike race at Sea Otter - the Dirt Crit. He says that the course may have been fast, but it was also very tough, with a particularly tricky descent that had a jump at the bottom, and a mud bog just after the start that took out riders if they didn't pick the right line. Among those crashing out of the race was Caroline Alexander (Team Great Britain). There were worries that Alexander had separated her shoulder, but Chris spoke with her after the race and, although she had a bag of ice on her shoulder, she was moving around okay and didn't seem to be in too much pain.

In the women's race (both men and women did 7 laps), yesterday's winner Laurence Leboucher (Team GT) rode away from the field on the second lap and soloed in to increase her lead. A pair of Subaru-Specialized riders - Elsbeth Vink and world champion Margarita Fullana - chased her all race, losing ground every lap, and eventually finished second and third, respectively. Behind them was a group containing Alison Sydor (Volvo-Cannondale) and Chrissy Redden (Gary Fisher/Saab). The group kept losing riders through the race, until it was left to the two Canadians to sprint it out for fourth. Redden managed to hold off Sydor for fourth. Another major dropout in the race was third placed Alison Dunlap (Team GT), who pulled out after a lap with headset problems, aggravated by the descent. By our calculating, this should put Sydor in second, behind Leboucher, Fullana in third and Redden neck-and-neck for fourth or fifth with Mary Grigson (Gary Fisher/Saab).

In the men's race, it was a similar scenario, but this time both the top two riders from the previous day broke clear. Bas Van Doren (Be-One) and Michael Rasmussen (Haro-Lee Dungarees) were allowed to ride away from a group of ten, who all sat waiting for the other person to chase. Rasmussen took the sprint over Van Doren. The second group gradually disintegrated, with Thomas Frischknecht (Team Ritchey) outsprinting Bart Brentjens (Subaru-Specialized) and Pavel Tcherkassov (Gary Fisher-Saab) for third. Just behind them, having dropped off in the last lap, was Roland Green (Team GT), followed by Rune Hoydahl (Giant) and Chris Sheppard (Haro-Lee Dungarees). Rasmussen will move ahead of Van Doren, with the stage bonus, but Brentjens will probably move into third, followed by Frischknecht, Green and Sheppard.